


In Solemn Stillness Lay

by AslansCompass



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Post-Crisis On Earth-X Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), mid-season 4 finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-02-28 02:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13261935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: It was the crisis and the goal; it was the hour and the power of darkness. It was the supremely supernatural act, of all his miraculous life, that he did not vanish.G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting ManThis wasn't the Christmas Barry had planned.  Now, sitting in a jail cell, wearing a standard jumpsuit, he faces the hardest struggle of his life: not running.





	In Solemn Stillness Lay

The officer responsible for intake barely looks up from her  _My Friend Went To..._ mug as she reads the basic questions.  "Name?"

"Barry Allen."  What does the other side of the mug say? It would have been the easiest thing in the world to dash to the side, read the full contents, even fill out the form, and sit back down before she blinked.  

_My name is Barry Allen, and I am the fastest man alive._

_"_ Date of birth?"

"March 14, 1989."

"Charge?"

"First-degree murder of Cliff DeVoe."

"Occupation?"

_To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist._

"Forensic scientist with Central City Police Department."

_But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other metahumans like me._

Forms to be filled, mug shots and fingerprints to be taken....

_But I became lost in time. It took everything in my friends' power to bring me back, and in doing so, our world was opened up to new threats. And I'm the only one fast enough to stop them. I am the Flash._

 

* * *

He knows his rights. He knows the Miranda warnings and the Fifth Amendment and due process. And he knows, if he asks politely and doesn't do anything whatsoever out of the ordinary, he can make a call.  Joe should know. Iris should know. Cisco and Caitlyn should know. Even Ralph should be told. 

Instead, he sits, staring at the floor.  Why didn't he run? He should have run. There was no other evidence to link him to the crime-- no concrete evidence. He might still have become a suspect, given the restraining order, given the knife, but he had an alibi, half a dozen people who could vouch for him.  He could have been exonerated with no doubt. 

 _Don't run._ This could be the end of everything, the end of the Flash and Barry Allen both. And Iris--oh, God, Iris.  She must be frantic by now. It's been--Barry looks at his watch. Three hours? That can't be right? Just three hours? Three hours to turn his world upside down. 

"Excuse me." He manages to keep his voice steady. "I'd like to make a call."

* * *

"Joe?"

"Barry, what's wrong? I was going to let it go to voicemail..."

"Can you get Iris on the other phone? I don't want to repeat this."  

"I'm here, Barry. What is it?"

"I'm... I'm at the Central City Jail.  In the jail. Charged me with it. DeVoe's dead."

"Barry, slow down," Joe says.

"DeVoe's dead. They think I did it." Except it wasn't DeVoe, it was just his body. DeVoe was now walking around in Dominic's body. They could have stopped it, they could have prevented all this, but it is too late.

No one answers. He isn't Barry Allen, forensic scientist, any more. He is a joke, a paradox, the fastest man alive stuck in a cell, a lead balloon.  He can picture Joe's face,  deep lines etching out from the corners of his solemn eyes. concern mixed with _"I can't believe you just tried that_." The same expression Barry had seen when he was ten and fell out of the neighbor's pine tree,  when he was sixteen and drove three friends to the mall on a snow day, and when he first explained to Joe about the Flash. 

"I'm on my way."

"No, Joe, please, it's Christmas Day, no one's in, there's nothing you can do right now."

"Like hell I'm letting you sit in jail on Christmas."

"They haven't set bail yet."

"I'm not leaving you alone."

"Joe, please....there's nothing you can do until tomorrow. Not here." Barry sighs. 

"What about the rest of the team?" Iris interrupts.

"I don't--spoil their day--get them involved--" He presses his knuckles against his forehead. "I don't know."

"We'll take care of it," Joe says. "You just stay put. Don't do anything stupid."

Barry wants to laugh, but nothing's even been less funny in his life.  "I know."

"Barry, we're going to get you out of this. Trust us."

"I know." The guard points to the clock. "I gotta go now."  

 


End file.
